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Joe Beck

Joe Beck, born in Wake County North Carolina, spent his life as a tenant farmer. He was interviewed by W.O. Foster as part of the Federal Writers Project, a program during the great depression designed to employ writers and academics.

Biography

Farming

Joe Beck was a white tenant farmer living in Orange County. He was born, 15 miles away from his wife in Wake County. Beck lived with his wife and 3 children on their rented farm in a 6-bedroom house. They were tenants, and lived on a 400 acre plot shared with 3 other families. E.H. Roycroft, a floor manager of the Roycroft Tobacco Company in Durham, NC, owned the farm. Beck owned two mules and a ford car, and grew tobacco. Beck made his living on tobacco alone. Beck’s wife Margaret hated working in tobacco, because she had to neglect caring for her children and home, in order to help her husband with farm labor. The year before his interview with the federal writers project, Beck hired a “colored man” to assist with his plowing, but it was too expensive to continue paying him, and so instead was forced to give him a percentage of his crop.

Education

Joe went through seven years of school, but was forced to stop because his family was so poor, and needed help on the farm. Margaret Beck, Joe’s wife went through eight years of schooling. She hoped her three children would make it all the way through high school.

Political Views

Beck was a democrat, and hoped they would increase farm subsidies so that his tobacco would be worth more. Joe votes every year, but his wife, Margaret, hasn’t voted since she moved from Wake County. Joe is anti-immigrant; he doesn’t like them for joining the unions. He is put off by the fact that farmers starve while “furiners” join labor unions and can always eat.

Social Issues

Farm subsidies and politics

Joe Beck was a poor, white tenant farmer in North Carolina. As a farmer, Beck had to switch from growing Cotton to Tobacco because the cost of cotton crashed. As such, farm subsidies were hugely important to him. Democrats of the era were pushing through many farm subsidies, ones that were opposed by Republicans, as such Beck was a democrat. was As Grubbs stated “as federal money came pouring in the cotton country in payment for the fiber that had been destroyed, and the smaller supply began to drive prices back up, the planters became even more dedicated democrats than before. “ . Democrats were the political party of choice for farmers because of their subsidies and assistance, and rightfully so. Democrats literally put money in their pockets, and there was little reason to even consider another party. Tenant farmers held a grudge against the rich owners, as they “received less for their crops than it cost to produce them. Less income meant farmers could not buy needed farm supplies, or even food and clothing for their families. They relied on banks and merchants for more and more credit. They sank deeper and deeper into debt.” . This vicious cycle hindered many farmers, and did not adore the farmers to the owners and their Republican party.

Women's issues and issues of class

Beck’s wife Margaret felt that she lacked the knowledge to be informed and vote. During the 1930’s women were granted suffrage, but many were still confined to their traditional believes about gender. Margaret had not voted since she left Wake County and married Joe. She believed he stayed informed and knew more, and that she should let him, as a man, handles voting. As according to Scott, “(tenant farmers wives felt) local as well as state or national politics are regarded as “mensfolks” affairs” The south during the depression was a deeply divided place. There was a huge gap between the owners of the land and the tenants. The wives of tenant farmers did much more work than their owner counterparts. According to Anderson, “Five times as many wives of tenants did farm work as wives of farm owners . Almost all tenants wives do some field work“ . This quote hits on two issues, one of gender roles, and another of social class. Women whose husbands owned farms and did not rent, were one fifth as likely to work in the fields. This is intriguing, as Bradley found that tenant farmer women worked alongside their husbands in the field. One would think it would lend itself to a feeling of empowerment, and thus more likely to vote. This did not occur in Margaret’s case.

Federal Writers Project

W.O. Foster as part of the Federal Writers Project interviewed Joe Beck in 1936. The Federal Writers project was created under Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New deal Works Progress Administration. The program sought to collect personal accounts from individuals across the United States, and to address “inherited questions about the nature of American Identity, nationality and culture (the FWP interviewers) Answers reflected their cultural nationalism, cultural pluralism, and cosmopolitanism.” The fact that only one interview is the only documentation we have of Joe Beck, thus issues of Voice are extremely important. Foster’s interview is a bit biased. He interprets Beck’s accent in the interview. He refers to the word foreigners as “furiners.” The way in which the interviews were conducted, the way they were transcribed, and the way they were recorded, all reflect the interviewers bias and perception.